Alana Beard
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Template:Reqimage Alana Monique Beard (born on May 14, 1982 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is a professional basketball player for the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is best known as the slashing shooting guard who led Duke University to two appearances in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.
Though she has to be considered as one of the best college players in recent history, she often stood in the shadow of Diana Taurasi of the University of Connecticut who played the same four seasons as Beard and led the Huskies to three consecutive national titles to close out her career. In the 2004 WNBA Draft, Taurasi was taken first and Beard second overall.
In 2001, Beard led Duke's Blue Devils team in scoring with 17 points per game. She was named the ACC Freshman Player of the Year. She garnered the Associated Press' First Team All-American honors in 2001 and was a sophomore on a team of eight players that reached the Final Four, eventually falling to the Oklahoma Sooners. Incidentially, that team was lead by Beard's future WNBA teammate Stacey Dales-Schuman.
The Blue Devils again reached the Final Four in 2003, but lost to the Tennessee Lady Vols. The 2003-2004 team was expected to reach the Final Four again but was upset by the Minnesota Gophers. That team was led by Lindsay Whalen, the current point-guard of the Connecticut Sun.
Beard was a three time Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year from 2002 to 2004. When she left Duke, her uniform number 20 was retired by the University during a home game against the Tennessee. She was a three time First Team AP All American, and in 2004, she won the first Wooden Award for a women's basketball player, and was the 2004 College Player of the Year.
Beard in her 2004 debut WNBA season led the Mystics to the playoffs, despite the loss of star Chamique Holdsclaw halfway through the season. They lost to the Connecticut Sun in the semifinals.
Duke Career Statistics: 19.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 3.7 asp, 3.0 spg, 1.1 bpg
WNBA Career Statistics : 13.1 ppg 4.2 rpg 2.7 asp 2.0 spg 1.0 bpg
External links
- Player's page (http://www.wnba.com/playerfile/alana_beard/index.html?nav=page)
- Duke Athletics (http://www.goduke.com)